XRWA takes on The West

• Anneke de Rooij with her bright new mural and its mysterious creator. Photo by Steve Grant.

CLIMATE change activists Extinction Rebellion have vowed to take on Perth’s monopoly daily newspaper The West Australian as part of a week of disruption they’re expecting will lead to “dozens” of arrests.

On Tuesday representatives of the group delivered a letter to SevenWest Media with a list of three demands, which were:

• The company had to run stories about climate change and biodiversity every day;

• Ensure a broader range of opinions about the “climate emergency” were aired, including opinion pieces by activists; and,

XRWA spokesperson Jesse Noakes told the Herald they’d had three opinion pieces knocked back by The West.

“Ten thousand children marched through Perth last week to demand action, and the West barely noted it,” XRWA said in a release.

The Herald contacted West editor Anthony De Ceglie for comment, but he didn’t get back to us.

Mr Noakes said XRWA members would gather at SevenWest Media’s Osborne Park headquarters on Tuesday to consider its response.

It will be part of the group’s “spring rebellion”, which he says will involve action each day of the week.

“All through the CBD will be a rolling series of actions – artistic and disruptive,” Mr Noakes said.

The big event, “Flood the City” will be on Friday October 11, highlighting the wetlands that once dominated the CBD area and how climate change predictions suggest the water will soon be coming back.

Meanwhile an East Freo resident has given over her front fence on Canning Highway to advertise the spring rebellion.

Anneke de Rooij said the fence kept getting hit by vandals, and while the local council would paint over the naughty words, it still looked pretty ugly.

Being an XRWA sympathiser, she offered it up, but was pretty surpised when the huge, bright pink mural started appearing over several nights. She even had a call from a couple of friendly police one night, alerting her to some characters projecting images on her wall and checking it was kosher.

The artist behind the mural was sticking Banksy-like to the anonymity of his hoodie this week, but says it was about a week’s worth of work for his team of five.